Carter's Ankle Sore Again

Vince Carter, who has been playing his best basketball of the year over the past several games, is questionable for tonight's game with what he described as a sprained right ankle.

The strange thing is that Carter doesn't recall injuring it. He thinks it happened in the last game against the Sixers when he had 27 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Carter has loose bodies in the ankle, which he probably aggravated in the game, but he said that veteran trainer Tim Walsh is treating it as a sprain.

"Timmy said I might have sprained my ankle, which I don't recall," Carter said. "But it looks that way and feels that way. I don't know. We'll see."

Over the past eight games Carter is averaging a LeBron-like 30.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists, well above his season averages of 21.5, 6.1 and 5.1.

Earlier in the season Carter sprained the same ankle and it really slowed him down for much of the season, and only recently has he come out of it. That injury was on the inside of his ankle, and he said this one is on the outside.

The Nets go into tonight's game against Detroit four games behind the Hawks for the final playoff spot.

If Carter can't go tonight, he felt he would still be able to play Saturday night against the Raptors, and he said that even if the Nets were eliminated from the playoffs, he still wants to continue playing, so he won't shut himself down.

"I want to finish the season, regardless," he said. "It's something I want to do as far as my team. If we're in it or out of it, I want to compete, so I'll do what I need to do prepare and see what happens."

If it is determined that the loose bodies in his ankle are creating a chronic problem in his ankle, the Nets may reccomend surgery in the offseason, but it will have to be up to them. Carter said he would not bring it up on his own.

"I don't like surgery," he said.

Carter doesn't know when he re-injured the ankle, but he thinks it was when he slipped trying to stop Willie Green in the fourth quarter of the game. He didn't practice Thuirsday after Walsh saw him hobbling and told him to go home. The Nets said on Thursday Carter left for a personal reason.